News outlets around the world reported Monday on the dismissal of the case against the Holy See. Oregon U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman’s dismissal of Plaintiff John V. Doe’s case against the Holy See was, admittedly, disappointing. After a 10-year battle against the sovereign Catholic nation, Judge Mosman ruled from the bench that the Holy See was not acting as an employer in this case of clergy sexual abuse. This ruling, however adverse, nonetheless affords us an opportunity to examine this case from the beginning as we look to appeal the decision.The case was originally filed in 20…
News & Events
The child sex abuse scandal surrounding the Catholic Church has hit close to home, with fingers of accusation pointing at a priest revered in the local community.Father George DeCosta, who for almost three decades was the parish priest at Malia Puka O Kalani Catholic Church in Keaukaha, has been accused of abuse by two Hawaii men. The two were students at Damien Memorial High School in the 1960s when DeCosta was the chaplain there.The school is operated by Christian Brothers of Ireland, and the allegations have been made in claims filed against The Christian Brothers Institute and The…
The head football coach at Minnesota State University, Mankato, was arrested and jailed Tuesday afternoon on allegations that he had possessed and produced child pornography.Todd Hoffner, 46, of Eagle Lake, was arrested at his home. According to the university, Hoffner has been on leave from his coaching position since Friday and a school investigation is pending.He remained jailed Tuesday night on suspicion of “use of minors in a sexual performance” and possession of child pornography while authorities considered formal charges, according to the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office.
“We are saddened and disappointed that after ten
years in the federal courts, United States District of Oregon Judge Michael W.
Mosman dismissed the historic lawsuit (John V. Doe v. Holy See) brought by
clergy abuse victim John V. Doe against the Vatican for its role in the
cover-up and secrecy of the clergy abuse crisis in America.
Breck School wants to dismiss a lawsuit by a former student who claims that he was sexually abused by a former teacher there — and that school officials knew about it.Rich Covin, 52, a retired retina surgeon now living in Rhinelander, Wis., says he was abused by former teacher William Jacobs when Covin was a student at the Golden Valley school in the early 1970s.Covin came forward after Jacobs was charged in another case, 35 years after the Breck incident.He has sued and settled with the imprisoned Jacobs, but he also sued Breck in Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis.
In response to Plaintiff Richard Covin’s
lawsuit against Breck School for allowing him to be sexually abused by a known
sex offender, the school has moved to throw out Plaintiff’s lawsuit on the
grounds that his case is beyond the statute of limitations.
The Boy Scouts of America’s “perversion files” are stored in locked cabinets at the organization’s headquarters in Texas, accessible to only a few people.The documents detail allegations of sexual abuse against expelled Scout leaders, ostensibly to prevent them from participating in Scouting again.”It is a fact that Scouts are safer because the barrier created by these files is real,” Boy Scouts Chief Executive Robert Mazzuca said in June.But a review of the files by the Los Angeles Times found that more than 125 men on the blacklist were able to access – and allegedly continue to prey on – Bo…
As a priest, he absolved others of their sins in the anonymity of the confessional.Thursday afternoon, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan stood in the very public forum of a federal courtroom and confessed to some of his own.Ratigan, 46, pleaded guilty to using five girls to produce or attempt to produce child pornography over several years while serving as pastor to congregations in the Northland and St. Joseph.Each count carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison.“When a defendant who wears a religious collar, who has the trust of the community, engages in conduct of this nature, his…
Minneapolis, Minn. —The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday tossed out a clergy abuse lawsuit by a man whose case rested on a repressed memory claim, siding with a lower court’s ruling that repressed memory is an unproven theory.James Keenan sued the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, claiming that as a teenager he was sexually abused four times in 1980 or 1981 by Thomas Adamson, a priest who has since been defrocked.Keenan brought his claim in 2006, well outside the state’s six-year statute of limitations, but argued that it should be allowed because he repressed …
Media Advisory
News Conference, Thursday, July 26 @ 1:30 P.M. CDT
[Streamed live at www.andersonadvocates.com]
Former Priest to reveal secret cover-up of clergy sex abuse in Winona Diocese and the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul
Because the court nixed trial, Priest who was witness
to secrets says he is compelled to tell all
What: At a press conference on Thursday in St. Paul, clergy abuse attorney Jeff Anderson and clergy abuse survivor Jim Keenan will join a former priest of the Diocese of Winona and employee of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis who will reveal his personal experience in how and when and where the officials of the Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of Minneapolis knowingly conspired to conceal the sexual abuse and crimes against multiple children for over two decades.
News ReleaseJuly 25, 2012New clergy sex abuse case filed against Archdiocese of PhiladelphiaSt. Augustine religious order and prominent school Malvern Prep also cited as defendants(Philadelphia) A new lawsuit was filed today in Philadelphia County Court on behalf of a Delaware County man against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Order of St. Augustine, a/k/a Augustinian, the prominent Philadelphia area Malvern Preparatory School and the alleged offender, John R. Liggio–a priest assigned to the school under the authority of both the Archdiocese and the religious order of Augustinians….
July 25, 2012Statement of Jeff Anderson re: Minnesota Supreme Court decision – John Doe 76C v. Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Diocese of Winona“We are deeply disappointed and shocked by the decision of the Minnesota Supreme Court to deny access to justice for this victim of childhood sexual abuse who repressed the memory of his abuse because it was so traumatic. In its decision the court determined that science concerning repression of memory is unsettled enough that it can’t be used in the court and thus denies Jim Keenan access to a trial–for this we are deepl…
(CBS/AP) PHILADELPHIA – coveMonsignor William Lynn, the first U.S. Roman Catholic church official convicted of covering up child abuse claims, was sentenced Tuesday to three to six years behind bars.Lynn, 61, had faced a maximum sentence of seven years in prison for his felony child endangerment conviction. He was cleared of three related charges at trial.Lynn , the former secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, handled priest assignments and child sexual assault complaints from 1992 to 2004.Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said that Lynn enabled “monsters in clerical garb … …
A lawsuit filed today against St. John’s Abbey accuses the religious order of knowing about sexual abuse allegations against a member of the order as far back as 1958, yet letting him teach at St. John’s until 1990.The lawsuit alleges fraud by intentional non-disclosure and fraud by intentional misrepresentation and accuses the abbey of keeping what it knew about the Rev. Allen Tarlton quiet.The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a former student at St. John’s Prep, where Tarlton taught English. Identified in the lawsuit only as John Doe LP, the student was sexually abused by Tarlton in the early …
A judge on Wednesday ordered a new trial for the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay in a civil fraud lawsuit brought by two childhood victims of clergy abuse.In an 11-page decision, Outagamie County Judge Nancy Krueger threw out a $700,000 verdict awarded to two brothers, now adults, by a jury in May. Krueger outlined information a juror should have expressed to the court before the fraud trial, WLUK-TV reported.An attorney for the diocese had argued a retrial is necessary because jurors who made the award had expressed concerns about possible bias by one of the jury members.